Instant Replay for Baseball

I got caught up writing a column about the wonderful Easton Area School Board -- I love people who make my life easy for me -- so I'm late getting around to the blog.

Earlier today, I e-mailed a group of fellow baseball lovers, offering the following opinion in the wake of the big fuss over Derek Jeter's alleged cheating. In case you missed it, an inside pitch hit Jeter's bat in Wednesday night's game, the umpire thought it hit Jeter on the hand and he played along with a stellar acting job, getting to first base as a result. (I was going to embed the video, but I had problems, so here's a link). Now some people think he has tarnished his image by "cheating."

That's balderdash, of course. Trickery is a big part of baseball. Players are forever pretending they caught balls that they really trapped, making baserunners think there's a throw coming when there isn't, framing outside pitches to make them look like strikes and so forth. If the call is blown, it's on the umpire, not the player. Baseball isn't like golf, where you have to police yourselves. That's what umps are for.

But the larger question, raised by this and other outrageously blown calls this season and the improvement of replay technology, is: If we have technology to get some of these high-profile calls right, shouldn't we use it?

So here was my comment to this group of friends.

"Another example of why we need instant replay. How about giving each manager one challenge per game?"

One of these guys is an umpire, in addition to his real job, and he blew up, arguing that we would be taking the human element out of the game. I won't quote him at length, but if he cares to elaborate on his incorrect views, he can jump on here and do it.

I don't see it. If each manager has only one challenge, he'll save them for only the worst calls, so I expect you'd go through most games with no instant replays at all. I certainly wouldn't allow them on ball-strike calls.

But there are any number of other instances where it would allow teams to overturn particularly boneheaded mistakes by the umps, of which there unfortunately have been many. At most, we're talking a few minutes.

I think it's worth an experiment, at least on a trial basis. I find no charm in the idea that gross injustices can deprive pitchers of perfect games or teams of World Series victories.

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Sounds good in theory, but there are certain details to be worked out. Now they consult replay for certain boundary calls. Would this continue, or would only challenges be subject to replay, no umpires independently calling for a replay? What would be the penalty for an unsuccessful challenge? In football, a timeout is lost. If no penalties involved, why wouldn't a manager use an unreal challenge in the ninth inning as a way to waste time and give a pitcher time to warm up? Do we really want to see ANYTHING put into the game that will make Yankee/Red Sox games last longer?

Posted By: DON | Sep 16, 2010 7:36:17 PM

Jeter deserves an Academy Award for his acting. Such drama!

Posted By: Lu | Sep 16, 2010 9:23:58 PM

Jeter's acting skills were very impressive.

Posted By: bill white | Sep 16, 2010 9:50:33 PM

FIFA has this one right: refs (or in the case of baseball, umps) are people. People make mistakes. It is a feature of the sport, so just deal with it.

Another point: In American Football, teams only get 16 games, so one blown call can (in the extreme) have an effect on a season. In baseball it's 162 games. One blown call isn't going to matter in the long run. If an ump or ref has too many blown calls, the official will lose his/her job.

Posted By: drphil | Sep 17, 2010 5:32:00 AM

If each manager is to get only one challenge, how does that slow the game down, especially when compared to the 15 minutes wasted by the arguing, posturing, and histrionics associated with the "human element" as was the case after the Jeter incident? No, Bill, methinks your umpire friend must be a - ahem- mature gent, set in his ways, and closed minded. Probably has poor eyesight to boot! I say, get the call right!

Posted By: Scott Culpepper | Sep 17, 2010 4:08:54 PM

Scott, your surmise is correct.

Posted By: bill white | Sep 17, 2010 4:21:34 PM

I am very concerned with the attitude of the umpires. Last night even though the ball was foul that the pitcher hit and New York scored thier first run on, you could read the umpires lips and he said I believe, I saw the ball and I don't need to see a replay. Obviously based on the replay he didn't see the ball. This mentallty needs to change and the let's get it right mentallity should prevail.